YWCA Hamilton’s Gender-Based Safety Audit

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Engaging Community in YWCA Hamilton’s Gender-Based Safety Audit  

In Fall 2023, YWCA Hamilton advocated for the City to fund a Gender-Based Safety Audit (GBSA) to investigate the ways gender affects the feelings of safety we experience in public spaces. Since then, we  have had the privilege of partnering with several groups in our community to collect feedback and reflect on next steps. 

As we move on from data collection to analysis, we wanted to share a bit about how this community-based and -led project has come to be.    

What is the Gender-Based Safety Audit (GBSA)? 

The GBSA is a process that invites community members to look at safe and unsafe physical spaces in their community and make recommendations for how those spaces could be made safer. The Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC) first conceived the “Women’s Safety Audit” action tool in 1989. Since then, this audit process has been adapted by many communities around the world.  

During a GBSA, the people most impacted by issues of safety must lead the way in pinpointing factors that affect their safety in the spaces they frequent. They must also be involved in the action taken to address those factors. Our approach starts with the belief that all GBSA participants are experts in what they need to feel safe. 

Our process for facilitating a community-based and -led GBSA 

For the past several months, we have sought feedback from community members with a wide range of life experiences and backgrounds. We did not take a one-size-fits-all approach to engaging groups in this audit process. Instead, we followed the lead of the groups and organizations who participated in the GBSA. This is because we know that depending on a person’s identity and history, their experience of safety will be different.  

 

It can also be hard to talk about experiences of violence with people you have not built trusting relationships with. For this reason, we provided participants with flexible options for engaging the communities they support and represent. It was important for us to prioritize those who experience added threats to their safety due to factors such as race, class, gender identity and sexual orientation.    

All of the engagement activities have been different – some groups wrote surveys, while others chose arts-based activities, conducted neighbourhood walks, or talked while enjoying a meal. What has remained the same is our overall approach

      

Where do we go from here? 

As we move forward into the data analysis, knowledge sharing, and action phases of the GBSA, we will focus on these questions:  

  • How do we work to address the safety of communities? 
  • How able are community members to address their own safety needs? 
  • What kind of safety are community members talking about? Are they physical? Emotional? Both? 
  • What prompts people to feel safe or unsafe? 
  • Do we prioritize certain kinds of safety over others? How come? 

We invite you to keep following our progress with the GBSA via our social media at @ywcahamilton!

 

 

Please be advised that YWCA Hamilton child care centers in Hamilton and Dunnville, all seniors programming, and all Developmental Services day programs will be closed today, Thursday February 13, due to inclement weather.